Julie Ann McIlwaine found guilty of murdering abusive partner

A woman who killed her abusive partner has been found guilty of murder.

33 year-old Julie Ann McIlwaine, of Kilwee Lane in Dunmurray, stabbed her partner James Crossley to death with a kitchen knife.

McIlwaine had admitted causing the death of Mr Crossley but denied his murder.

The 38 year-old victim was killed while he slept in March 2022.

After deliberating for nearly 10 hours at Coleraine Crown Court, a jury of seven women and five men reached a unanimously guilty verdict.

During her police interviews McIlwaine told detectives she and Crossley had been arguing off and on that day but as her victim lay sleeping “I was getting all these thoughts in my head…I didn’t know what was going on…I felt like a psychopath.”

“I didn’t want me and him to be together. I didn’t want to happen what happened,” the 33-year-old told police who suggested to her “something came over you?” “I couldn’t stop, I just kept pushing it and pushing it. He said ‘Julie Ann help me’…I took the baby and ran out,” she told the detectives.

She told police how they first began their relationship in January 2020 but that between then and the fatal stabbing around 23.30 on 1 March 2022, there had been periods of separation with incidents of domestic violence, coercive control and verbal abuse interspersed in the relationship which McIlwaine was hiding and keeping secret from her friends, family and Social Services.

Following the jury’s verdict, Mr Justice Kinney emphasised their role was an “integral part” of the justice system and thanking them for their patience and the “conscientious way” they had approached the case, he said they had to deal with “very difficult evidence.”

Remanding McIlwaine into custody, he adjourned the case until 6 November.

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